North Andover, MA – The visiting UMBC men's lacrosse team enjoyed a dominant first half performance and went on to defeat the Merrimack Warriors, 15-9, in an America East Conference contest on Saturday afternoon.  The Retrievers improve to 2-0 in the league for the first time since 2017 and are now 3-3 overall.
 
Senior attackman Brian Tregoning scored a game-high five goals and added three assists to finish with a career-best eight points on the day.  Tregoning, who produced three goals in the opening quarter, converted on five of his ten shots. Senior midfielder Dane Hall (4 goals, career high) and junior attackman Jordan Galloway (3 goals, 1 assist) also recorded hat tricks.  Senior attacker Allen Hockenberry registered season highs with two goals and two assists while senior linemate Mike Doughty (3 ground balls) distributed four assists. Faceoff specialist Zach Dudley also enjoyed a career day as the senior won 19-of-24 draws along with a personal-best 13 ground balls. Senior Jayson Tingue turned aside eight shots to earn the victory in goal.
 
How It Happened

• Tregoning wasted little time as he buried his first shot of the game after receiving a feed from Hockenberry at the 13:38 mark to put UMBC on the board first.
• The hosts got even just over two minutes later as Jack Rooney found Jack Kolbe in front of the net.
• The Retrievers would then score two straight times to claim the lead for good. Tregoning scored the go-ahead marker on a shot to the lower-left corner at the 7:38 mark and then Tregoning set up Hall for a tally from point-blank range just two minutes later.
• The Warriors managed to trim the deficit to 4-2 on a goal by KJ Delane with just sixteen ticks left in the period.
• UMBC struck for four consecutive goals to open the second quarter to extend their advantage to 8-2 with 8:53 remaining in the half. The Retrievers took advantage of an extended extra man opportunity to score the first two goals during the burst. Hockenberry (assist Galloway) and Hall (assist Doughty) produced man-up goals and then the duo of Tregoning and Galloway teamed up for the next two goals with the latter notching his first two tallies of the contest.
• Following a goal by Merrimack, Tregoning capitalized on a bounce shot to make it 9-3 after a crafty dodge on net at the 2:54 mark.
• Brian Russell got one back for the hosts with a minute remaining in the half, however, Hockenberry shocked the Warriors with a goal at the buzzer from ten yards out to give the visitors a 10-4 advantage at the break. Junior Colby Weishaar found Hockenberry off the clear for his first career assist and point.
• Merrimack (3-6, 1-1 AE) opened the third quarter with a goal at the 13:41 mark but Tregoning was able to wind up and notch his fifth and final goal of the day after receiving a pass from Doughty to give UMBC an 11-5 lead less than two minutes later.
• Nick Gutierrez, last week's Saturday's hero against Bryant, would make it 12-5 after an unassisted tally with 6:20 left in the period.
• The Warriors scored the final two goals of the quarter to trim the deficit to 12-7 with a quarter remaining.
• Things got a little dicey for the Retrievers as Merrimack scored twice early in the fourth to finish a 4-0 run and close to within 12-9.
• The Retrievers bore down on defense and put the Warriors away with three straight goals to finish the game. Galloway (assist from Doughty) opened the run and Hall scored a pair of unassisted winners to finish the day.

 
Inside The Numbers

• UMBC outshot Merrimack by a count of 45-27.
• The Retrievers won 21-of-27 faceoffs.
• The Dawgs garnered 40 ground balls compared to 28 by the hosts.
• Tregoning just missed matching his career high in goals as he put in six at Mount St. Mary's in the win on Feb. 24.
• Doughty now has a team-high 19 assists and has recorded four or more helpers four times this season.
• Tregoning (16g, 6a) and Doughty (3g, 19a) are now tied for the team-lead with 22 points while Galloway (16g, 4a) has 20.
• Dudley is 76-for-143 on faceoffs this season and has now won 341 draws. He also leads the squad with 36 ground balls.
• Kasey Mongillo led Merrimack with three goals.

 
Up Next

• UMBC will host UAlbany (3-5, 2-0 AE) on Saturday at 12:00 p.m.